Study Abroad English Language Holidays

by Josef Essberger

A language holiday is a combination of "holiday" and study abroad to learn or improve a foreign language. English language holidays are taken in English-speaking countries like England, the USA or Australia. While there, you study in a language school with students from many different countries. You live with local people, often staying with a host family (homestay).

A language holiday can be of any length - from one week to one year - but most are two or three weeks.

What are the Benefits of a Language Holiday?

Language holidays have become a very popular method of learning English because they have many advantages:

•Total Immersion

Because you are in an English-speaking country, you are constantly exposed to English - from the time you wake up and have breakfast with your host family until late evening and your last drink in a local pub. You have little or no opportunity to escape the English language. This is how you learned your own language - constant exposure.

•Mixed Classes

When you study in your own country, all the other students in your class speak your language, so you are not obliged to use English. On a language holiday, students come from countries all over the world. It is possible that nobody in your class will speak your language, so you will just have to speak English!

•Freedom From Pressure

On a language holiday you are away from home and can forget the everyday pressures of school or business. Your mind is more relaxed and you can learn more easily.

•Cultural Understanding

Learning a language is not only about learning words. Different nations have different cultures. People think and behave differently. Their language is closely associated with their culture. By visiting and living in a foreign country, you learn to understand the culture and the people - and so better understand the language.

You'll find schools offering language holidays at EnglishClub.com ESL World.

© 2000 Josef Essberger

Source: http://www.englishclub.com